


Less is more

by Reese95



Category: Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015)
Genre: Amputee, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, amputee fetish, amputee sideswipe, valveplug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-08-20 21:46:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16563716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reese95/pseuds/Reese95
Summary: Sideswipe seeks to find a new life and new purpose after he loses both his arms and legs in a grisly accident.  The Bee Team will not allow him to lose hope, supporting him and showing him there's still a way he can contribute to the team.





	1. Chapter 1

Behind Sideswipe’s optic shutters, recall code brings him back to a grisly scene.  Wiry sensors prickle from the back of a porcine decepticon; they’re painted blue with his energon.  His belly was speared, legs gashed, arms dislocated. He could swear he saw his outline in the smoke of his failing engine.  It stayed, a phantom of himself in the creature’s mouth, lingering after he fell to the ground. His cold, bared engine stalls, and stalls, and stalls as the ‘con laughs over him.  Its lazer fangs grow nearer to his throat with each movement of its head. And then, with beaming white light, the present moment began. Sideswipe screamed. Hands and soothing words smothered him, bringing him back to reality.  He’d passed out. He realizes this now, he’d gone into protective stasis after getting mauled by that con and now he was… bare oxide walls, surgical equipment, Ratchet... in a med bay. Ratchet sat to his right- sitting on the medberth directly where Sideswipe’s pauldron should be.  So that arm was probably gone. A little orange rotary chattered at his feet- actually, a little closer. Was he sitting on his legs? He booted his audio processing drivers and began to listen;

“- about the pillows- they were just what we could find around the junkyard and they’re a little dirty.  But Ratchet dried them with his blowtorch so i promise you won’t get any rust infections! We, um, we did our best… its not so bad when you really think about it, it’s like that one episode of-!”

“Let the poor lad wake.”  A gruff hand waved the orange nurse to silence.  Sideswipe craned his head to see.

“Raaaatchet?  Heya Ratch, tough nuts meeting again like uh, this, huh?” He internally cursed himself; he was slurring and it sounded dumb!  But he likely just underwent intense surgery… he cursed himself for cursing himself.

The little orange one spoke up in the brief moment of silence.

“Oh, good!  You arent freaked out!  ‘Cause I was afraid-”

The orange nurse was again shushed.

...freaked out?   What would Sideswipe have to be freaked out about?  He looked down at himself- ah. That.

“Ratchet.”

Ratchet turned from glaring at his nurse to looking at his patient with concern.  “...yes?”

“Ratchet where are my legs?”

Ratchet sat up straighter, clearing his throat.  “...Well they were,”

“Ratchet  _ where are my legs _ ?!”

“I’m sorry, Sideswipe, but the damage to your neurocords was... just too severe.  Your arms and legs could not be reattached.”

“My… arms?” Sideswipe looked left, right, and down.  They were gone, really gone. He had but simple rounded aluminum caps where his limbs should be.  He tried to wiggle his right arm. Nothing moved. His processor drew a blank. It occurred to him that he wanted to be back at the junkyard.  He looked for a long moment at his own belly, where he thought his t-cog probably was. He tried to transform. It wouldn’t transform him. Oh… no wheels.  

Sideswipe looked up, optics betraying his dismay.

“Guess this means I can’t drive…”

Ratchet sighed sadly.  “No.”


	2. Movie Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sideswipe opens up

“Please, Sides, c’mon,”

Grimlock kneeled with his hand beside Sideswipe, waiting for his permission to pick him up. Sideswipe was refusing to look at him.

Sideswipe huffed. “We haven’t been doing this… this isn’t a thing. We did this last week. That was-”

“It as Movie Night.” Grimlock nudged his hand closer, clawtips touching Sideswipe’s belly before withdrawing.

Grimlock huffed sadly.

“M’ worried about you, Sides…”

Grimlock stood to leave, but Sideswipe spoke. “Don’t-”

Grimlock looked back.

“Don’t what?”

Sideswipe kept his face in the pillows beneath him, straining his neck to cover his face. “Don’t… leave.”

Grimlock sat down beside the ‘bed’, a ramshackle pile of human mattresses, blankets, and pillows. He stared at Sideswipe, who was straining to keep his face hidden. The dinobot spoke. “Why not?”

Sideswipe groaned, which only made Grimlock more concerned. He prodded Sideswipe with the dull side of his claws, “Why not, Sides??”

Sideswipe snapped, “Stop it, Grimlock!”

Grimlock pulled his hand away, giving his red friend an uncertain look.

Sideswipe sighed. “Nevermind. Leave. You can’t get it. No one can.”

Grimlock perked up. “If you mean the one under your chassey, I bet I could, I can lift you Sides, I’m real strong-”

“Stupid!-” Sideswipe yelled; Grimlock flinched. He then muttered, “fragging dinobot…”

Grimlock looked at the ground for a long moment.

“I’m not so smart. I know that. But I’m tryin’, Sideswipe. That’s more than you can say.”

He stood to leave again, and Sideswipe unburied his face at last.

“Grimlock, wait, I didn’t mean…”

Grimlock gave him a hurt look.

“I didn’t mean it. I’m just… look at me, Grimlock, I’m… hurting.”

Grimlock paused.

Sideswipe looked up at him, and Grimlock could see the dark oily borders around his eyes. He had been crying.

“I’m sorry, Grimlock.”

The dinobot crouched back down, and sat, and got comfortable.

“So… What’re you feeling that this big dumb dinobot wouldn’t ever understand?”

Sideswipe gritted his teeth, glancing away. “I… I feel useless, Grimlock. I take up time and effort that could be spent catching decepticons. It’s humiliating and depressing to be hand fed like a fraggin hatchling… And things between me and Strongarm are so weird now! She treats me like a hatchling too! It’s still me… I almost wish she’d make fun of me or something… I… it’s weird, but everything is so different, and… I’ll go back to Cybertron if you don’t want me. There are plenty of med wards that would take me till my wires grow back. I can’t stand it, being your burden.”

Grimlock’s optic ridges knit, and his eyes glistened.

“See! You’re doing it now! You pity me-”

Grimlock put a hand over Sideswipe, who made an indignant grunt.

“Sides… We love you,”

Sideswipe went still.

“All of us. OP, Bee, Drift, even Strongarm. All you do is mope any more and we’re all worried about ya! But we don’t…” Grimlock paused, mouth open, looking for his words. “It ain’t nothing, takin care a ya. You’re our friend; Sides, the team wouldn’t be the same without you. I swear it. We love you.”

Grimlock moved his thumb to reveal a warm smile from Sideswipe. He let out a breath, and looked down at the green metal of Grimlock’s warm claws. It was a comfortable weight over him.

“So…” Sideswipe looked away, blinking off a tear before looking back, “Let’s see this fragging movie, hm?”


End file.
